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Originally posted by P250UA5:

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Beginning with the Australian Grand Prix in March, every race will air live on the ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. The package will include every practice and qualifying session and involve more than 125 hours of F1 programming across the first season.

Seriously, 125 Hours? As of now, we get 2 hours on Friday, 2 hours on Saturday, and 2.5 hours for the race and debriefing. Furthermore we get the 30 minutes pre race, and NBC-SN does a 30 minute program after the 2.5 hour race. Given there are 20 races, and we are currently getting 7.5 hours a rave, we are currently getting 150 hours a year, they are cutting the programming, and people are happy they are getting the shitty FP1 - why? I have seen it in Real life - few car turn serious laps, 3rd drivers take majority of laps, or they have those stupid pitot tube/ rake all over the car.

A relatively low drama race. RBR has really upped their pace in the latter portion of the season.
Shame about the retirements at the beginning of the race.

Less than 2 weeks til I'm Austin bound!

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Originally posted by P250UA5:
A relatively low drama race. RBR has really upped their pace in the latter portion of the season.
Shame about the retirements at the beginning of the race.

Less than 2 weeks til I'm Austin bound!

It is surprising the # of Vettel/ Ferrari fans on this board

I'm personally a Bottas & Ricciardo fan, of the current drivers.
Max is growing on me as well, seems to have matured a bit, but is still quite daring in his moves.

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Originally posted by 280nosler:

It is surprising the # of Vettel/ Ferrari fans on this board

I think most people would just like some competition. When Ferrari and RBR had their dominating years, F1 worked with rules and regs to break them. Since Merc's ascension, I've seen nothing from F1 to mess with them.

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Originally posted by P250UA5:
I'm personally a Bottas & Ricciardo fan, of the current drivers.
Max is growing on me as well, seems to have matured a bit, but is still quite daring in his moves.

Keep an eye on Ocon too.
His finishing record as a newcomer is amazing and he seems to be able to pull off some great results.
He’s making Checo yesterday’s news. Hope to see him show up Perez in Mexico.

Ocon does seem to be doing well.
This season has a few instances of the #2 driver outperforming their teammate.

F1 needs to encourage innovation. All we have seen in the last 10 years is a set of rules/formula which inhibits innovation. Sure complexity is still there because people are smart and trying to figure out ways around restrictive frameworks. That's always been in racing.

However we have never seen 35 spot grid penalties week after week, because you had to change the part that failed. Why do teams have to work 24 hours through the night to rebuild a crashed car? Why can't we have spare cars prebuilt? Which is truly more expensive?

We need to remove the stupidity from formula one. I'm sorry that not every team can afford the expense of formula one, but if you can't run with the big dogs stay on the porch. That means Sauber and/or Williams and or anybody else. Formula one is an elite sport for the top and best competitors. At least that's what it used to be.

As of now it's so boring I can barely watch it. The rules restrict real progress throughout the season. You only get incremental changes; nothing revolutionary or competitive. The only way to win in Formula One is to be with the right team at the right time to get the right car. Driving is secondary.

^ I did read recently that they're looking into removing or heavily revising the penalty structure.
Something to the effect of, a guy shouldn't have to start last because he had to change a faulty part.

I think it'd be interesting to give a vague set of regulations to allow some variation.
3.0 liter limit for N/A engines, no cylinder limit, no rev limit
1.6 liter limit for forced induction engines, no cylinder limit, no rev limit

Remove fuel flow restrictions, maintain all fuel must be carried onboard, no refueling.

Adapt the aero to work for closer racing.

^ yes, I sure do hope that Ross Braun is bringing some smarts to the platform.

The FIA, specifically Jean Todt, came up with these complex, expensive hybrid car rules, not the commercial rights holder of F1.
Hopefully the new owners can have more control through Ross Brawn and start correcting these problems. However the car regulations won’t change much for a couple of years.
The grid penalties are something that can be addressed sooner but it is a complex problem so I hope they come up with some great solution. I’m just not sure what that will be.
Making passing/following cars easier is also a difficult problem when you have a lot of aero grip. Slow tight corners before a long straight, where aero is minimal, is about the only way without some DRS or power boost artificial method.

IIRC, the new formula comes in 2022.
I think I recall reading something about twin turbo V6 with less hybrid tech & possibly taking away DRS.
Came from an article talking about Porsche coming in as a non-constructor supplier.

Only 3 more days 'til I'm Austin bound!

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Originally posted by P250UA5:

Only 3 more days 'til I'm Austin bound!

Sweet! I'll be there Friday morning. Getting excited!

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Originally posted by furlough:

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Originally posted by P250UA5:

Only 3 more days 'til I'm Austin bound!

Sweet! I'll be there Friday morning. Getting excited!

At the track? What section?
Our seats are in the Turn 9 grandstands. Parking in lot F.

Yeah, we plan to be at the track all three days.

Turn 12 grandstands, and staying with my buddy who lives downtown so we'll be taking the shuttle buses.

Want to try to meet up? Shoot me an email in my profile.

You guys better bring back some good pictures.

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Originally posted by 220-9er:
You guys better bring back some good pictures.

My Nikon is on the charger. Friday will be good practice at figuring out good shots between the 2 lenses I have.

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Originally posted by P250UA5:
...figuring out good shots between the 2 lenses I have.

Start with your wider-angle lens since you can always crop in, if necessary. Close shots with a telephoto are difficult on fast-moving action such as auto races, even with high ASA numbers, since framing becomes an issue (think of the wavering you observe when shooting a scoped rifle).

A long time ago, I did a two-page spread in Autoweek on a Vintage and Classic weekend at Road America, shot with my Nikon F-3, and my best-framed shot was blurred a bit. Disappointing.

Any chance you can post pictures from the track Friday?